Joel Santo DomingoAsus VivoTab Note 8Out of the latest group of Windows 8 slate tablets, the Asus VivoTab 8 distinguishes itself with a low price, and by including standard features that are options on competing tablets. These extra features help it to pull ahead of the pack to become our first Editors' Choice for entry-level Windows 8 slates.

Compact. Built-in storage for pressure-sensitive stylus. Has GPS/GLONASS support. 9 hours of battery life. Comes with MS Office Home and Student. Comes with carrying case. One-year warranty includes accidental damage.

Cons

No I/O ports. No 4G/LTE option.

Bottom Line

Out of the latest group of Windows 8 slate tablets, the Asus VivoTab 8 distinguishes itself with a low price, and by including standard features that are options on competing tablets. These extra features help it to pull ahead of the pack to become our first Editors' Choice for entry-level Windows 8 slates.

The Asus VivoTab Note 8 ($329, 32GB) is one of a wave of new Windows slates priced under $400. As a full Windows 8.1 device, it can run all the PC apps you need, and you get a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition. The VivoTab Note 8 is the first entry-level Windows slate to pull ahead of the pack with features, such as a pressure-sensitive stylus, and it comes with a battery that lasts more than 9 hours, as well as a class-leading warranty. It distinguishes itself from the crowd enough to become our first Editors' Choice award winner for entry-level Windows 8 slate tablets.

//Compare Similar Products

Design and Features
The VivoTab Note 8 measures 0.43 by 8.75 by 5.25 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.6 ounces. This puts it in the same size and price class as the Acer Iconia W3 (64GB), Dell Venue 8 Pro, Lenovo Miix 2 8, and Toshiba Encore. It feels light in the hand, and you should be able to hold it all day if need be. The back of the case is made of a matte-black polycarbonate, and the screen is covered by edge-to-edge regular glass instead of the specialized material (like Gorilla Glass) found on pricier tablets like the Lenovo ThinkPad 8 and Microsoft's Surface Pro 2. To make up for this, Asus includes a case for the VivoTab Note 8 that protects it from scuffs in your bag. The case has tabs and a folding flap, so you can use it to prop the screen up when watching movies.

The In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen is bright and clear, with a 1,280-by-800 resolution that translates to 189 ppi (pixels per inch). It's a five-point touch screen, but Asus includes a pressure-sensitive Wacom EMR digitizer and stylus. The Dell Venue 8 Pro also has a Wacom digitizer, but a stylus isn't included. Even better, the VivoTab Note 8 has a slot molded into the chassis for stowing the stylus.

The digitizer helps give the system excellent palm rejection; you can easily sketch or take longhand notes on the screen without having to worry about interference from the surface of your hand. Given the lack of a keyboard or trackpad, using a stylus makes sense when you're trying to navigate the parts of Windows that aren't touch-optimized.

You can hook up a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth, but this tablet is really meant for quick information retrieval, note-taking, and media playback. There's dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and the system also supports Miracast for streaming to HDTVs. You'll need these wireless technologies, since the tablet is equipped with a 32GB solid-state drive (SSD), which only has about 14GB free (the rest is taken up by the OS and pre-loaded programs like news, recipes, Skype, etc.). Wireless networking will get you to Microsoft, Google, or Asus cloud storage. The 64GB version of the VivoTab Note 8 goes for $379 at the Microsoft store.

The system does have a microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB microSDXC cards (note that the slot is exposed, though). Asus also includes a year's worth of unlimited cloud storage, and you can use Microsoft's OneDrive to keep your documents updated as well. Asus did a good thing when it put the recovery data on an included microSD card. Think of it as the modern-day version of the recovery DVD; it saves space on the SSD that would otherwise have been taken up by a backup image and gives you the ability to wipe the tablet to out-of-box status in about a half-hour.

The VivoTab Note 8 supports GPS/GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System, aka, the Russian GPS system) included, which can help navigation and local search capabilities. Thus, any website that uses location services, like Google Local or pizza delivery sites, will be able to pinpoint your location more accurately. The tablet doesn't have WWAN or a 4G radio, however, so you'll be dependent on a mobile hotspot for connectivity. Students, homebodies, and office workers should be fine, though. We were able to connect to the device our test 802.11n network and stream videos for hours. Pictures from the 5MP rear camera and 1.2MP webcam were typical for the category, fine for quick snapshots outdoors and in well-lit areas. The rear camera is well placed, centered at the top of the tablet.

Asus includes a few preloaded apps. There's Line for Windows 8 (an emoji-oriented messaging client), along with Twitter, Skype, OneNote, Asus PhotoDirector, PowerDirector, YouCam, Netflix, and a full copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013. The one-year warranty includes accidental damage, which is a huge plus. Asus also offers a 30-day zero bright dot return policy. This means you can return the tablet within 30 days if you notice even one stuck pixel on the screen.

Performance
Current entry-level Windows 8 slate tablets like the Asus VivoTab Note 8 are built on the same basic hardware: an Intel Atom Z3740 quad-core processor with built-in Intel HD graphics, 2GB of DDR3 memory, and an SSD. As such, their PCMark 7 scores were roughly within the same range: The VivoTab Note 8 scored 2,402 points, landing between the Dell Venue 8 Pro (2,303 points) and Lenovo Miix 2 8 (2,564 points). In real-world use, though, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which is faster.

Similarly, the VivoTab Note 8's Handbrake score (2:42) was within a couple seconds of the others. The good news is that it was significantly faster than last year's Acer Iconia W3, which had a Handbrake score of 8:48 and a PCMark 7 score that was 1,000 points behind the newer Intel Z3740-powered tablets.

The VivoTab Note 8 distinguished itself as one of the better performers on our battery rundown test. It lasted 9 hours 10 minutes, which is more than enough for an average workday or loaded class day. About the only slate tablet that could pass it was the Acer Iconia W3 (9:24), which uses a less powerful Atom Z2760 processor. The other tablets in this class ran in the 8.5- to 9-hour range. The Editors' Choice for detachable hybrid tablets, the Asus Transformer Book T100TA, managed more than 11 hours (11:20), but that's with the extra battery cells that a 10-inch class tablet can fit in its larger chassis.

The Asus VivoTab Note 8 puts a lot of utility in your hands for not a lot of money. The addition of a digitizer and included pressure-sensitive stylus will help budding artists and anyone who wants to take handwritten notes on their tablet. Other niceties include one year of cloud-based storage and a warranty that covers accidental drops and spills. Thanks to these added features (which the competition lacks), the VivoTab Note 8 sets itself apart from the other entry-level Windows 8 slate tablets, and is our first Editors' Choice in this nascent category.

Asus VivoTab Note 8

Bottom Line: Out of the latest group of Windows 8 slate tablets, the Asus VivoTab 8 distinguishes itself with a low price, and by including standard features that are options on competing tablets. These extra features help it to pull ahead of the pack to become our first Editors' Choice for entry-level Windows 8 slates.

Joel Santo Domingo is the Lead Analyst for the Desktops team at PC Magazine Labs. He joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology...
More »